Hereafter (2010– 129 mins) M.Damon, C. De France

Hereafter is really three seperate stories of sadness involving death and their inevitable coming together in the end to wrap it all up. First we have George (Damon) who has psychic connection to the afterlife and the dead. He is able to make a connection to a subject’s loved one once he touches them and is able to “hone in” on their life. It’s a bit supernatural for a movie trying to keep close to “reality” but he’s not a fake so just use suspension of disbelief for this one. Next we have French journalist Marie. Marie experiences death in the form of a near death experience surviving a devastating tsunami while on vacation. Marie has lingering effects of this experience, with some visions and wants to write a book on her experiences. Finally we have twin boys Frankie and George. They experience a close loss that leaves them devastated and unable to fully deal with it.

Each one of the stories begins good enough and manages to get us involved in their stories. In fact the scene of the tsunami is one of the most amazing piece of filming I have seen in a long time. However, the real good parts end there. The movie is WAYYYY to damn long to fully enjoy. Even having 3 separate stories to bring together I don’t think they need over two hours to do so. It’s easily 30 mins past what the movie needs to be. This slow story development hinders the advancement of the plot so much that when we finally get  to the oh so brief meetings of the characters and obvious ending that we just don’t care anymore. It’s not even that any of the performances are bad. I thought Damon was good and the twins were excellent. Even the fairly zombie-like performances by everyone in the French story line I could forgive. You just say “end already!” so much that the quality of the performances are completely lost.

Verdict–> A movie which if was 90 mins would be a 7 , but at 129 mins becomes a 3. If you got the time and 2 pots of coffee to stay awake sure you might like it. If not, it’s a pretty avoidable film. Again a decent movie with too much time and predictability. Not a very strong recommendation here.

Get Low (2009– 100 mins) R. Duvall, Bill Murray, S. Spacek 

In this 1030’s tale, Duvall plays Felix Bush, the small town’s hermit who lives out in the woods all alone, rarely being seen or heard from by the townspeople. He is one of those mysterious guys who everyone has a story about, and no one really knows what is true and what is not. What they do know is you stay away from the ornery old man and that there is something not right about him.

Naturally there is a whole lot then meets the eye. The old man has a 40 year old secret. One that once he hears of an old firend’s passing of old age, he decides he needs to tell in one way or another. He then concocts the idea of having a funeral for himself while he is alive. This way he can get an idea of what everyone truly thinks of him, and he can set the record straight. The men responsible with organizing and pulling off the feat of making people care about a live funeral for a man they really know nothing about are Frank Quinn (Murray) and his assistant Buddy (Lucas Black).

All in all the movie is a good watch. It’s a good character piece and as usual Robert Duvall is amazing as the old coot. He’s always part mysterious, part comedic, and a small part scary. As always he pulls those off nicely, and steals the movie. Murray is good as the funeral director but I think they sell his character a bit short. It’s possible that they didn’t want to give him too much to do here as it would detract a bit from both the main story and Duvall as a whole, but it still left me wanting a slight bit more out of his story.

Verdict–> There isn’t a whole lot to say about this fairly simple movie other then it’s a good watch. It kept my interest the whole way and I enjoyed the performances. It can be a slight bit slow at times, as most character driven pieces are, but it didn’t keep me from liking it any less. I think this is a good movie, but more for a good winding down bookend of a double feature. People looking for it to be that big draw for a movie night might feel let down slightly. Grab it tho when those top level blockbusters are out at the red box, it’s a good watch.

Found this little G4tv interview with Felicia Day about her upcoming movie Rock Jocks (slated to be out 2012), when she tweeted it. She described it as “Clerks meets a science fiction movie”…. Um yeah sign me up! I am sure with her being in it, there will definitely be a ton of geek world attention and hopefully help it do well. Prob, not a WIDE release, but hopefully wide enough that we can all find a way to see it on the big screen as well as help it make some money. After all cool sounding projects like this need to succeed to keep opening the door for abstract geek ideas to be made and keep the sci-fi and of course fantasy genre alive and popular in Hollywood.

Thanks to Felicia Day for the heads up on Twitter about this, and thanks to G4 for the video.

In this installment of the end of season grading we will hit the forwards. It wasn’t a great year for the scoring but wasn’t terrible either. Only Staal managed to crack the top 15 in scoring with his 76 points. However, while the team wasn’t breaking any records scoring-wise, they did manage to have 5 players with 50+ points. Only the San Jose (7) ended up with more 50+ point players then the Canes. While we already established last installment the problem wasn’t the lack of scoring all year it was the complete lack of team defense. Going forward what is the main concern for the forwards? It’s the fact that as of today, the Canes only have 5 forwards under contract for next season. That number includes 2 regulars, Staal and Ruutu, and 3 youngsters —> Skinner, Bowman and Samson. Of course we have to include one restricted FA who we know will be back in Sutter, but beyond that it looks like there will be a ton of turnover this year up front and some more youth coming in.

But, enough of that… let’s get some grading going on! (Big guys suck as Staal, Skinner and Sutter left for the next installment)

# 15 Tuomo Ruutu

After missing roughly half of last year with injuries, Ruutu bounced back to play all 82 games. He also hit everything that moved finishing 2nd in the league in hits with 309. He put up some decent scoring numbers with 19 goals and 38 assists for 57 points. He was also a respectable +1. I liked his play this year but often felt he could have and should have put up more then just 19 goals for the team. Ruutu remains one of my favorite players on this team b/c of his constant effort, and hard hitting play. I wouldn’t complain as much about his 19 goals but at 3.8 mil per year he should be putting up better scoring numbers. However I put a lot of that behind as he was 2nd in forwards with his career high 38 assists.

Grade– A- Other then his sub 20 goals this year, Ruutu played the exact type of game I hoped and expected. I love the fact he was 2nd in the league in hits and while doing so still managed to play al 82 games. A good team year for sure out of the Finland native.

Outlook–> Again at 3.8 mil he might be a bit overpaid but the good news is he is here for another season, not to mention after that he’s still restricted. So while he’s overpaid now we might get a discount after next year to keep him here. Look for him to play just as hard next year and hopefully continue to stay healthy. He continues to show a rela knack for playing next to Jokinen and Skinner as well. He’s part of the core of solid players now Rutherford just needs to get us some more talent at the forward position to fill out that core.

# 19 Jiri Tlusty

Tlusty was pretty invisible for most of the year. He had an injury stint and some scratched games but for the most part you hardly knew he was on the team. He only managed 6 goals and 6 assists in his 57 games. He’s exactly what we hoped he wasn’t when he came over from Toronto. A ton of potential and no follow through. He has games he hustles and plays effective 3rd/4th line as a defensive forward but for the most part he doesn’t get much ice time and doesn’t do much when he does.

Grade— C- He’s just not very useful as a player. The only saving grace is he only made 500K against the cap but he didn’t stay healthy much this year.

Outlook–> I don’t think he’s good for much, but he’s the type of guy Rutherford will throw another 500K at and keep him around. He’s a roster filler and not much more. Look for him to be here next year as a 3rd or 4th line center.

#20 Troy Bodie

The Canes picked up Bodie this year in Nov. off waivers from the Ducks. They don’t typically have more then 1 dedicated “goon” on their team so a decent skating forward like Bodie who can drop the gloves (cheaply) fit their bill. I don’t mind the fact that in his 10 fights for the Canes he was voted on Hockeyfights.com as being 1-5-4, mainly b/c when he is out there on the ice he’s not a liability defensively. He works hard, delivers a few hits (68 for the year) and gets his butt of the ice quick.

Grade– C+ Ten fights in 50 games for the Canes sounds about right. As a team they don’t tend to let their guys drop them too often so I cannot hold that against him. I would like to see him get a bit better and win some more, but hey just dropping the gloves at home in the RBC center is a good thing b/c anything to get the house rocking is a good thing to me.

Outlook–> Unfortunately for Bodie guys like him tend to grow on trees in the minors. Fighters who hustle. There are not a whole lot of youngsters in their own minors who fit that bill, but I see them looking for anyone who will sign to fight for 500-600K or else they might bring him back at that same price. It’s kind of a coin flip for Bodie. I wouldn’t be upset either way take him or leave him.

#26 Erik Cole

I have been on quite the roller coaster of liking and hating Cole over the past 5-6 years. Before the dreaded Orpik hit on Cole in ’06 I often said overall I consider Cole to be the best player on the team. He was the best defensive forward and was exciting every time he touched the puck offensively. Then, after the hit he was a different player. He was slow at times and lackadaisical on defense. Then after he came back from the Oilers, he was good again. He was a force in those playoffs as well. And naturally last year he was invisible, hurt,and down right useless to the team. I thought for sure he was done. Then the roller coaster continued to this season. Not only was Cole good, he was a force again. He played in 82 games (for the first time in his career), put up the 3rd best point tally of his career and was 3rd on the team in goals. Cole was MR. Clutch all year, netting a team high 9 game winning goals. It seemed that if there was a game that needed untieing he was the man to do it. This season really reinvigorated my view of Cole. He is a player I love to watch play and one I think could very well have resurrected his dieing career.

Grade- A Outside of Skinner there is not a player on the roster I think gave his heart and soul all season long.  I never said “Cole took tonight off”. Not even one time this season.  He was tied for 3rd in the league in Game winning goals, and in the top 10 in hits. Great season by Cole, just a shame they didn’t make the playoffs to see what he could have done.

Outlook–> Normally I would say the Canes couldn’t re-sign a player when he had the comeback year like Cole has had. The only difference is I think the league has already branded him as a player who cannot play well outside of Carolina. He made just shy of 3 mil this year. Look for Rutherford to give Cole a deal between 3 and 4 million to stay here. Myself I would be fine with 3 but 4 might be pushing it. And I would also not make it a long term offer, as much as I loved Cole this year you just never know if he will disappear again next year. I just really hope Jimmy can coax a hometown discount out of Cole to keep him here, I want to see him with Skinner and Staal on the PP for another year!

# 36 Jussi Jokinen

Jussi’s 30 goal season last year and his flare for the dramatics in shoot outs have made him a huge fan favorite in Carolina. While it came as no surprise to me that he didn’t get back to 30 goals, he did play a huge role in the teams big January and Febuary until he got hurt. Once he got hurt he didn’t bounce back well and only netted 3 goals in the final 2 months of the season.  Jokinen still plays hard and is one of the better defensive forwards on the team. His +3 ties for second on the team among forwards. It’s a shame he missed those 12 games this year with an injury b/c if he had stayed hot he would have likely ended up with 25 goals or more and could have made a huge difference in getting the team to the playoffs.

Grade– B+ Injury or not I still would have liked to see more then 19 goals from Jussi. He did play hard and gives it his all every night on the ice. A decent season only drawbacks are again the goal total and 12 games missed by injury.

Outlook–>The only good thing about Jokinen only scoring 19 goals this year? It likely means the inevitable raise he will get will be lower then it could have been. He has been vastly underpaid the last two years at 1.7 million, and is likely to get more. The only silver lining is that he is still a restricted free agent so it prob. won’t take much more then a qualifying offer to keep him here. It’s a lock the Canes make one, but they might have to hope no one makes a huge offer to him. Look for them to get him signed before July 1st to keep that from happening.

#39 Patrick Dwyer

Dwyer finally worked into a full time role this year with the big league club for the whole year. He found a regular spot on that 4th line with some time on the 3rd line here and there. His main problem has been scoring. Granted when you play with Tlusty ,Bodie, and Samson most of the time you might not score much but with the speed of Dwyer I still expect a bit more then just 8 goals out of him. At some point to be successful, those 4th liners have to play well enough to surprise us and earn their way onto the 3rd line. Right now Dwyer is not that guy. You can’t get by on speed the whole time at some point better defense and scoring has to kick in. However, for a guy who only made 500K last year he’s still a bit of a bargain for a fluff roster filler.

Grade– C+ He managed to play 80 games and did have a pretty impressive 166 hits for a 4th liner. If he managed to get 12-15 goals with a plus rating I would have given him a B+ but for now he still had a below avg. season.

Outlook–> Dwyer is now an unrestricted free agent. I don’t quite think many teams will have interest in him, so it would only take another offer of 500K to keep him. Yet, it also would prolly only take another team offering him 700K to get him to jump ship. Knowing Rutherford and his love of cheap fluff I can see him re-signing Dwyer before he hits the market. Myself, I would rather see the Canes pay a mil each for these 3rd/4th line fluff to get some guys in here that can put up 20+ points a year.

Next week I will finish up the Canes end of season forward grading and then finish up with the goalies and some outlook for the off season and for next year for the team.

Enjoy your Easter weekend!

Well, for the 2nd time in the last 4 years the Hurricanes had a shot to make the playoffs with a win in their last game. As usual they crapped the bed and lost. Not only did they lose this year they got embarrassed on home ice by the TB Lightning. With the Bolts already in the playoffs and nothing to gain by winning, all it would have taken is a hot 1st 10 mins and some big hits, like in the Red Wings game 2 games earlier, and the Lightning would have packed it in just trying not to get hurt. Instead the Canes came out flat, and got smoked in the first period being down 3-0 before you could even get back to your seat with a beer.

The Canes were in the top 5 of the league in pure number of back to back games and it hurt them a bit. They were and impressive 14-3-4 in the front end of these and a depressing 7-12-2 in the back end of these. At first glance 21-15-6 isn’t so bad… .500 on paper but still leads to you missing the playoffs. The Canes finished the year better then I thought from the beginning of the year, but 1 game worse then what I predicted last month down the stretch. I thought they would manage to slide into the playoffs by 1 game or so and lose in 5 in the first round. Seeing how far they were out of it with 7 days left to finish one game out isn’t bad at all. An 8-1-1 run before the last day of the season will do that. BUT, two of the games they lost will hurt for a while. The Sunday game at home vs Buffalo will sting a bit, as will the obvious loss that put them out of the playoffs.

I will save my overall thoughts on the team and the coaching for the last of these recaps b/c I will go more into overall salary cap #’s then as well. For now, I will start with reviewing and grading out the defense. Remember these grades are mainly for the team only, not rating them vs the whole of the NHL.

#4 Jaime McBain

The young offensive defenseman came into this year with HUGE expectations. After putting up 10 points in 14 games at the end of last year, the front office and fans alike were looking at him to be a savior. Not so fast. McBain started REAL slow. He looked slow and lost for most part of the first half of the season only netting 1 goal before mid January. There were times this year I thought the kid needed some time in Charlotte to work on his game a bit, but they kept on going to the kid to get him some work in the show. He did heat up down the stretch and during the last month and a half of the season he often looked like he fit in, redeeming  himself in the eyes of many. On paper his 7 goals and 23 assists might look good enough, they don’t truly tell how bad he was the first half of the year. Is the end of the season the McBain we get for next year or is he just an offensive player who feeds off of the teams hot streaks. Guess we will find out next year.

Grade– C- He didn’t make any impact this year at all. If it wasn’t for a hot last 20 games he would be a D-

Outlook–> McBain is obviously here to stay and at 23 he’s got plenty of time to grow. I am going to be optimistic with him and say I think we will see a better first half next year, as usual providing they put something around him on the blue line. He will need to step up defensively if he is going to get prime ice time next year.

#5 Bryan Allen

Allen came over in a deadline deal for Sergei Samsonov to bolster the defense which had a complete lack of defensive play. Before that only Gleason could be considered an actual defensive defenseman. Allen did what he was asked to do. He played hard each night. His numbers down the stretch were good for his style of play. He netted 5 assists with a +4, with 35 hits and 27 blocked shots. I thought he was a guy who never took a night off hustle-wise and I liked what I saw from the 30 year old.

Grade– B If he managed to toss in a goal or two I would have given him an A

Outlook–> Allen is signed next year for 2.9 mil against the cap. I think he’s good value for the money and a great start for the back end to work with next year. Happy to see him in a Canes uni for at least one more year.

#6 Tim Gleason

Gleason did what he always does for this team. He shows up, he plays hard, he takes no crap from the opposing team, and he hits HARD. Tim played in all 82 games for the Canes and while I say he hits hard, he still lacks that killer touch in front of the net. I would like to see him finally put a hurting on some players camped out in the crease, as this is ALWAYS killing the Canes down low. More teams score in close then ever should vs this team. That being said, Gleason is never one to shy away from hitting and from sticking up for his teammates. He will drop the gloves with anyone and plays through all sorts of pain day in and day out. His numbers reflected his hard play from the season. He netted 2 goals and 14 assists and had 85 penalty minutes. The best stat tho is his hits (215) which ranked 5th among NHL defensemen. He also managed 141 blocked shots too which night in and night out help out just as much.

Grade– B Again. like Allen, Gleason had a great year.. few more points and improving on the -11 and he would grab an A

Outlook –> Like Allen here as well Gleason is signed for next year. At 2.75 mil for one more year, he will look to improve on his penalty killing and manage to get  that hard shot back on track. Another guy whom I am glad is here and if they can pair him up with a two-way D-man or an offensive one, looks to be a good top 4 D-man for years to come for this team.

#25 Joni Pitkanen

Joni Pitkanen is my scape-goat for this year. He’s the object of my utter hatred on this team. I have not seen a more lack of effort on 75% of plays from a player since Jaromir Jagr left the league. I am sick and tired of his same old lolly gagging into the offensive zone going down the left boards slow trying to hold in the puck, which he manages to do about 5% of the time and the other 95% of the time he misses and starts an odd man rush. As long as a good defensive forward like Sutter is out there, you are ok. If not, it’s usually a goal for the other team. As always Pitkanen played when he felt like it. He often only plays well when the team is winning and is either benched or a good offensive option for the other team when they are losing. In wins this year Joni was  + 21 with 4 goals and 21 assists. In losses -23 with only 1 goal. Down the stretch people will only remember the OT goal he scored vs the Islanders, his ONLY game winning goal of the year. However, what it doesn’t tell you is that it was a beautiful play by Skinner to set up what might have been his only true slap-shot of the whole year.

Grade– D- I would have given him an F, but hey he did score 5 goals. Too often he doesn’t hustle and is no where to be found when the Canes needed a big play or big stop.

Outlook —> He’s an unrestricted free agent this year. YIPPPIE!!! I can only hope someone offers him a contract worth more then he’s worth so that Jim Rutherford won’t re-sign him. For some reason the Canes front office loves the guy, even tho he’s a waste of money. He made 4 million this year. Hey Jimmy, if you re-sign him for any thing more then 1.5 million you are complete moron. I would rather see more youngsters from the minors then this stiff.

#33 Derek Joslin

Another deadline deal brought Joslin over from the Sharks in Feb. He’s a tough kid who plays hard and covers his own end fairly well. He’s a little slow of foot and doesn’t have the hardest shot, but he’s not one to shy away from contact and always hustles his butt off to get back into the play if he does get beaten in the neutral zone. He only managed to play 17 games for the Canes this year but his +7 with 21 hits impressed me the most. He’s got some real potential to become another Gleason, but I doubt we will see much in the way of point production out of him. That’s fine by me as long as he stays in the plus side of plus/minus and hustles every time he’s on the ice.

Grade– C+/B- Hard to give a guy who had 17 games a good or a bad grade. I say this grade b/c I like his heart and play style, but with only 2 pim’s it tells me he’s just not rough enough yet. Perhaps a fight or two next year?

Outlook–> Joslin is a restricted free agent. I think they will tender him a qualifying offer and see him sticking around. I don’t think Goose is top 4 material, but he is definitely a guy I can see them having at top 6. Depending on who they sign or bring up he is likely #6 and/or a healthy scratch/injury replacement on most nights. Keep up the good work Joslin I am rooting for you.

#44 Jay Harrison

Jay Harrison came a LONG way in ’10-’11. Last year he was a mostly scratched meh-type player who I thought would have been cut after the year. He was given a starting 6 job this year and it took him a while but he found his stride. He was pretty mediocre to blah the first half of the year but once January hit. it was like he was a different player. In 2011 he was +8, with 3 goals and 3 assists. Doesn’t sound like much, but for a guy you don’t expect anything from it was huge. I thought his tough(111 hits), and defensive minded play were excellent and I actually was happy to see him on the ice at the end of the game. Unfortunately he went down the end of March to an upper body injury and missed the rest of the season. The Canes missed his defensive presence on the PK and he could have been a minor piece which could have made a difference of those 2 points.

Grade– B- Don’t get me wrong he was great the 2nd half of the year, and I talked him up well, but after all is said and done he is still Jay Harrison, and not a Duncan Keith type player (yet?). With only 3 goals and a little more then half the hits I would like to see from him there is still room for improvement no matter how much he impressed me this year.

Outlook–> Harrison made 500K last year, and is an unrestricted free agent. I don’t see too many teams that will throw big money at him, so I see Rutherford giving him a slight raise, maybe to 700K and him sticking around for another year to see if he keeps improving. I see him being the 5/6 D man on this team and playing most every night.

#77 Joe Corvo

I was a real happy man last off season when the Canes brought Corvo back. I thought they got good value for him in the trade to Washington, and to have him back in the place he felt comfortable in 08-09, was a positive investment. He didn’t disappoint either for most of the year. Before January he notched 6 goals and 7 assists and played a good leadership role on the back end. He continued his great start with a 13 point January and a 3 goal february. He looked good on the PP all year moving the puck well and getting 23 of his 40 points there. This would have made for a GREAT year if not for 2 glaring items. First defense. Boy did he look bad on defense this year. He was down right awful, at times looking like a Pitkanen clone letting guys just go right around him. I expected a hell of a lot more two-way play from him this year. Instead we got good offense (40 points) and poor D (-14). As bad as he was defensively he was both bad offensively and defensively in March and April. The Canes needed him in a big way in March and he was not there. They needed him in April and he was not there either. People might not remember the 23 PP points this year from Corvo, but they will certainly remember his disappearing act down the stretch.

Grade — B- I teetered on C and B- on Corvo. He was so one dimensional and pulled such a disappearing act in March/April that I really wanted to throw him a C. However, he was such a great leader and played so well offensively through Feb. that he deserves a B-.

Outlook—> Corvo is signed for one more year at 2.25 mil. Right now he’s the Canes top offensive D-man and top Point man (as a Defenseman). I am hoping someone gets it into his head that he needs to play more two-way and then he will have quite a year. If he doesn’t then they will continue to let up too many goals like this year. And for a team who will likely be fighting for 8th AGAIN next year they need all the defensive play they can get.

Overall the defense for the Hurricanes was average to below average at best. They allowed far too many shots on Cam Ward, and they never EVER clear out the front of the net. They need a top defenseman coming in here to replace the God-awful Pitkanen to even THINK about a playoff run. Mark my words, if Pitkanen comes back next year they will NOT make the playoffs.

I have always been fairly anti-apple. With the majority of their users are holier then thou, and an I am better then you air about them. Sure it’s no doubt that some of their applications are more suited for some professional uses then some of their PC counterparts, I will fully admit that. I just don’t like Apple’s marketing, especially those annoying commercials of old. Yet, the one thing I hate the most that they are trying to control the demand of the market by trickling out their iPad 2’s right now. The latest version of the iPad is no doubt faster and lighter, and plain better then their first version. While as usual no USB or flash shows the usual chinks in Apple’s armour, and hardheadedness. These 2 things aren’t enough for people to stop buying them (yet), but the controlling of the quantities very well could be their downfall.

Including my family we admittedly own 3 iPod nanos, and 2 iPod touchs, and yes like many I want an iPad2. My main reasoning I want an iPad2 over the competition is the vast number more software choices on apple’s app store vs the android marketplace. The games are just that much more in abundance there and the quality is still lightyears ahead of the android’s. However, the Android marketplace is starting to catch up. Pretty soon they will have added just as many and they will carry a ton that are among the best out there as well.

So my search for an iPad2 has been going on since launch. I have been looking now for close to one month and have not been able to find them at any of the normal local retailers. Target and Best Buy have been advertising them nearly every week and neither of them get in more then 2-3 units of iPad2s at a time. This is also not due to them not ordering enough of them, it’s due to Apple not releasing the numbers to satisfy the demand. They knew the demand would be high and they also knew they would sell them. There is no way they just don’t have enough manufactured, they simply are not releasing the numbers to keep people jonse-ing for them and wanting them more. I have done my homework as well, trying to find when they will be arriving at Target and for 3 weeks now I have been unsuccessful at obtaining one. I am a fairly patient man, and I want one but believe me when I say I have been keeping a good eye on the android marketplace. Once I see certain apps that I am looking for on there I will begin the GeekJock boycott of the iPad and start being an owner of one of these nice shiny new android tablets. Apple better smarten up and start releasing some product or I bet they will find that many consumers will buy into the growing sentiment of contempt with Apple, and you will see these Android tablet sales sneak up on Apple’s near monopoly of the market.

Don’t be so stingy Apple get the people what they want. We want product. We don’t want lines and annoying waste of time trips to retailers to see empty shelves where iPad2s should be.And Days Of Wonder, get that Small World app out for the android tablet, so I can be one step closer to not giving Apple more of my money.

Stone (2010–105 mins) R. De Niro, M. Jovovich, E. Norton

Stone is a dark character driven drama in which a criminal named Stone (Norton) is up for parole and is trying to use his wife (Jovovich) to influence his paroloe officer (De Niro) to approve his parole. Like most character driven dramas this one is short on the action but heavy on the story. This is a bit different then some of the movies that I saw lately, in that in others they are movies most will like that I did not as much. This film, I enjoyed it for the story, and also for the irony and subtext.

(Slight spoilers ahead so skip to Verdict if you want to know my final thoughts) De Niro’s parole officer is near retirement but is trying to hang on to see the last couple of cases to the end. He has a few demons of his own that we are allerted to early on but Stone’s wife (Jovovich) is able to further get through his defenses and get him to buy into her plan. She also is a bit messed up like Stone eludes to, and is really out only for herself. What this really brings about is that half way thru the movie we start to realize that with Stone finding some inner peace with religion that the prisoner is the only one who is truly not screwed up. It takes a man who screwed up once and came to terms with his mistake, to come out on the other side at peace and not still messed up. Whereas we now have the other two people in his life who are on the outside completely screwed up in life with no real end in sight for them. It’s this subtle irony that I found to be very interesting and hammered home the movie as a success to me. Granted it’s a bit dark and all and I will likely not see it again but I did think it was a good film.

Verdict–> This is a dark character driven drama which I enjoyed. I can describe it however as a movie lover’s movie. It’s not going to break any record for the most exciting or compelling movie out there, but for those of us who like heady intellectual drama’s it’s definately worth a watch. Decent mid range recommendation for the movie loving crowd, but not a date movie.

Love and Other Drugs (2010–112 mins). J. Gyllenhal, A. Hathaway

As if “How Do You Know” wasn’t a missleading trailer and marketing misdirection enough, here comes “Love and Other Drugs”! Yet another movie that leads us to believe it’s a laugh a minute romantic comedy. Then here comes the drama train. Again here we have a primary romantic drama that has some comedy elements thrown in.

Jamie (Gyllenhal) is a hotshot drug rep with a quick wit and a perfect line for everything, oh and did I mention he is a machine with women? He meets and eventually falls for equally aloof and fun woman named Maggie (Hathaway). The movie takes place in the mid 90’s when the FDA hadn’t yet clamped down on all the perks and crazy kickbacks/bribes that drug reps could give to doctors. This makes for some funny story points, espeically if you know anything about the profession of drug reps/medicine/pharmacy and how out of control this whole time was for those companies. The drug companies had more money then they knew what to do with, they were throwing it around like mad and doing some real delorable things to get doc’s attention. Jamie is the perfect match for this type of job. He can charm the pants off of any receptionist/nurse and basically sell doctor’s their own shoes back to them. Yet in Maggie he has met his match. She’s a straight shooter who can see through his BS, but finds the real guy underneath. But here’s the rub. Maggie has early onset Parkinson’s disease. She’s also got a bad case of self loathing/ independency to go along with it. It’s this “I can handle the world all by myself, and screw you no one will help me!”, attitude that they throw in there that gives us all the drama of the movie. (Parkinson’s isn’t a spoiler it’s reveiled the first scene we meet Maggie so don’t feel like you know too much). That’s basically it in a nutshell. We are exposed for about 25 to 45 mins to comedy and aloofness of it all, and then they slowly start to drop the bomb of drama on us. Please get your crappy drama out of my comedy. Stop trying to make a perfectly good rom-com base into a vast masterpiece of drama and love. You have essentially drained the life from the movie and make it into a type of downer. The only source of comedy we get after about the midway point of the movie is Jamie’s idiot brother who is seperated from his wife addicted to porn. He’s funny but it’s an obvious attempt by the writers to keep us interested and upbeat with his funny lines.

This is also the movie that thoroughly takes Anne Hathaway’s goodie goodie reputation and puts it in a blender chops it to little pieces and throws it over a cliff. We end up seeing her naked in this movie so much that we almost become immune to it. Sure they use this to try and prove a point about the character but it seems extreme at times but hey who am I to complain about Hathaway’s boobs. It does however, come accross as a gimmick and takes away a little bit from it all.

Again I am more upset about the miss-direction marketing then I am the quality of the movie. It’s a good story and a decent watch. I hate that we are lead to think this is a knee slapping romantic comedy when it’s another romance drama with a spattering of comedy. Everyone is good in it, even the supporting players like Hank Azaria and Oliver Platt.

Verdict—> It’s a decent watch, but be warned, don’t get this b/c you want to see a romantic comedy. Watch it knowing it’s a pretty good movie but it’s more drama with comedy then rom-com. So don’t get it thinking it’s a date night rom-com, it could be a fine couples movie but just be aware what you are getting into.  I will put a decent recommendation on it and put it a slight tick above “How Do You Know”. It’s a bit more dramay th

How Do You Know (2010– 121 mins) P. Rudd, R. Witherspoon, O. Wilson, J. Nicholson

We are starting to get an overabundance of movies which are not totally romantic comedies but the rom-com-dramas. I don’t know if these studios are thinking the rom-com genre has been over done in the last ten years or so and thus have to throw the drama element to them all, or if it’s by design from the get go. Either way this trend to bill movies in trailers as rom-coms and then after 30 mins of a movie throw some drama in the mix is starting to get on my nerves a bit. It would be ok if most of them, hell if SOME of them were that good, but they all are sloppily written and poorly executed. They take a good cast and put them thru half baked scripts from hell. Problem is at their core most of these types are good movies but they let you down in more ways then they should.

Case in point “How Do You Know” . Here we have two great comedic actors in Paul Rudd, and Owen Wilson. Throw in one of the true beauties in Hollywood in Reese Witherspoon, and a classic actor in Jack Nicholson, and you have a cast that you see and say, wow this could be good! And when you watch the trailer, well hey even more promise! Then you watch it…. More on that after the synopsis.

Two successful people both are hitting rock bottom. Lisa (Witherspoon) is a world class USA softball hottie who has just been cut by the team. To boot she is dating a complete idiot of a pro baseball pitcher (Wilson) who just doesn’t get it. George (Rudd) is getting indicted for crimes he may or may not have unknowingly committed as a lawyer for his father’s company and has been dumped by his girlfriend at the same time. So normally we would get a movie where hilarity would ensue as these two meet and figure out what is what and bam fall in love. And I should be happy that it’s not that predictable, but I am not. This movie is so over-complicated with sub plots and complications that it’s work just to watch it. Two hours?? Seriously? The whole storyline with Rudd and Nicholson as his father could have been completely taken out and shaved 30 mins off running time. They could have made Rudd just get fired for any one of XX reasons and done just the same. It’s frivolous and is just a cheesy way of trying to add drama into the movie.

Verdict–> You won’t hate the movie, it’s not TERRIBLE, but it’s just not as good as the trailer or your own mind would lead you to hope it is. Two hours is just too long for this movie. It will end like you want it to and will be ok when it’s over but about 2/3 of the way thru you will say my God is it over yet? It’s a mid level recommendation, meaning if there is NOTHING else in the Red Box, then get it, but don’t get anything else b/c it;s not a great movie for a double feature unless you are single and on a  date night and just want to spend more time with a cute chick.

Wild Target (2010– 98mins) Bill Nighey, Emily Blount, Rupert Grint

When a world class assassin Victor Maynard (Nighey) who is close to retirement stumbles upon the target of a job he can’t quite kill, hi jinx ensues and a funny movie is had. It’s a slapstick type assassin tale but from a bit of a British point of view slapstick is quite sedated and more subtle then the “Airplane” type slapstick. Maynardis set to kill a con woman Rose (Blount), and while he is about to do the deed another bumbling assassin tries to get involved and so does a random riff raff Tony (Grint). Suddenly Maynard instead of killing the girl finds himself protecting both Rose AND Tony. From here things only get more comedic and more involved so I won’t spoil any more details but just say that this is a subtle and under the radar good movie.

I am amazed at how low key a guy like Nighey is in Hollywood. He is an actor that most people remember more as Davey Jones from the second Pirates of the Carribean movie, but when you look at his work you think holy crap he’s in a crap-ton of TV and movies and in all the ones I have seen he has been very good. Here he is amazing at using the vise of anal-retentive assassin to be the straight man in the three stooges and bringing in a great comedic role. Blount starts out the movie great but her role gets a bit muffled in all the “action”, and then she takes a back seat some to Nighey and Grint down the stretch. She’s still good throughout and meshes very well with the other 2 as well as looking hot in the process. Grint, still looking to shed the whole Ron Weasley bit and become a real actor is hilarious as a street riff raff with no real direction in life. It’s almost like this movie was a vehicle for him to show his comedic shoes. Sure he’s got some acting chops but he’s got a ways to go to grow into a good actor and shed the Weasley family name. Yet, it’s a good start for the kid and I hope he continues down the track. I can see him in a Pegg/Frost comedy as a supporting role to see if he can handle it.

Verdict–> It is a great rental, and a very good movie. It’s not a big budget monster comedy but I do like the lower end subtle comedies with both slapstick elements and intellectual comedy. I put it on the 1st tier of rentals so pick it up for a great double feature. Funny and not too long either!